Book review - A Remarkable Venture of Faith
A Remarkable Venture of Faith by Anthony F.B. Hall-Matthews
This is a lengthy and disturbing study of a complex problem. It is very detailed, and because it is written as a doctoral thesis, it does not make for easy reading. However, I found the effort to be worthwhile, if disturbing. To my mind the work is more than adequate as a Ph.D. thesis for James Cook University.
The author sub-titled his work, 'An Examination of the Fiduciary Relationship between the Anglican Church of Australia and the Missionary Diocese of Carpentaria.'
I had to confess that the word, 'fiduciary', which he uses constantly, was not one with which I was familiar. I turned to my New Oxford Dictionary, and read,
'Of trust or trustee(ship), held or given in trust; (of paper currency) depending for its value on public confidence or on security.'
Clearly, according to the author there was a real breakdown in the relationship between church authorities and the clergy and people of the Missionary Diocese.
The author delves deeply into the development of mission in the Northern Territory among the Aborigines and the Islander community leading to the establishment of the Missionary Diocese of Carpentaria. All this was too distant from most Anglican communities and authorities, and government funding and responsibilities sometimes overlapped.
Relations between the Missionary Diocese and the other Anglican dioceses were never very good and there was frequently tension and misunderstanding. The settled dioceses were too busy building up their own structures, extensions and funding to worry much about their fellow Anglicans on the periphery. Clearly the Missionary Diocese suffered from 'the tyranny of distance.'
This work details the tensions which arose between the more established church groups and the Missionary Diocese.
According to this book, the arch-episcopal oversight was frequently neglected and the eventual forced amalgamation with the adjoining diocese caused deep rifts which were never healed!
The author would claim that the attitude of the archbishops and those supporting them did considerable harm to the Anglican Church at the top end of Australia. The breakdown which followed has also caused harm to the Anglican Church as a whole.
This book closes with the record of an interview between the author and Dr Keith Rayner, the former Primate, in 2002.
It does throw some light on the controversy, but Dr Rayner's frequent lack of recall and his excursion into what he sees as parallels do not seem to achieve very much.
It has to be said, in my opinion, that if attitudes on both sides had been more flexible, and more understanding shown in the past, history might have been re-written. However, I must allow the readers to work through this wordy thesis and make up their own minds.
A Remarkable Venture of Faith by Anthony F.B. Hall-Matthews. Published by Acorn Press, Western Australia, 2007. Soft Cover 4001 pp. Cost $49.50
Reviewed by Dr Philip Blake